Deception in Apuleius´ The Golden Ass

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Deception has been a ploy as long as time has been account for as what may use as an explanation of what they are unable to fully understand, or what may be deemed as inexplicable. It is to been believed by many of past, present and most likely our distant future, there are indeed powers, beings, at work that we can not understand. In Apuleius’ “The Golden Ass”, these deceptions, play an important role in the lives of these societies, in their everyday lives. There is one common thread in the stories shared with in “The Golden Ass”, where the practice of deception, which was referred to as magic and/or witchcraft, which seems points the finger a one member of the society, women, and their sexuality and desirable nature. Through each century men have always attempted to explain “women” and their effects on them, believing in this time, that it was indeed the work of dark powers and beliefs that women held. This “accusation” was able to allow men to be scapegoats to whatever actions and behaviors they displayed, and was able to pass the blame to someone else, the women and their witchcraft. Of course this meant that no man would be held responsible for adultery, because according to the society, he was under the woman he laid with spell, and under in influence and it was beyond his control. There was a safety to anyone to believed this to be true, rather than believing that a man would have acted on his own manner, and could not control his own desires.

In “The Golden Ass”, there are many stories presented will distinct similar tales involving women and their magic, their witchcraft. These women were never unattractive, and at the least they were considered “not at all bad-looking”, and are considered “really in heat”. These w...

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... trickery that seem to overcome and paralyze the men in the “Golden Ass”. Pamphile is labeled as such, as a witch, from the beginning of this encounter, and he testifies to trying to avoid her sexual advances and her enticing nature. Pamphile is now seen to attempt to capture the interest of the narrator, saying that “the moment she sees a handsome young man, she becomes possessed by his charms and has no eyes or thoughts for anything else” and “anyone who won’t cooperate, or gets writtens off for not fancying her, she instantly turns them into a rock or a sheep or some other animal, and some she simply eliminates”. Lucius, like the narrator, is given this warning as well, to stay away from Pamphine. In reality Pamphile is considered to be an independent, sexually driven and confident woman, which forces man to really look at himself, and his own powers over women.

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